Sony: Gamers’ needs trumped beauty in Vita design

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Legendary Sony product designer Tokashi Sogabe admits that comfortable gameplay won out over a beautiful design in placing the dual analog sticks on the PlayStation Vita handheld.

Sogabe, whose credits include the original Walkman, some Vaio laptops, the PS3 Slim, spoke of an eternal debate between designers and engineers in creating a product. Sogabe’s original design had the sticks in a different location, but according to him, “Worldwide Studios were adamant” that they be changed to make gameplay more comfortable. Sony’s game publishing arm ultimately won the debate.

Sogabe felt that the more comfortable sticks were not “in the perfect position” from a design perspective. The sticks in their current position are symmetrical but set inward from the D-pad and buttons, leading one to wonder where Sogabe felt the sticks should be.

Interestingly, Sogabe also revealed that some prototype Vita models had “flat slide pads” similar to laptop touchpads, but that they weren’t responsive enough for gaming purposes. As a result, thumbsticks were back in, but the designer added that it was a “much greater technical challenge” than one might think to include them.

The message overall is a great PR move for Sony as the US launch of the Vita hardware approaches: what gamers want wins over what a designer dictates.

Compare Sony’s dual sticks to the single-sticked 3DS below. Nintendo backtracked and decided to release the Circle Pad Pro, an optional accessory second stick which makes a total mess of the system’s design. It’s unfortunate, considering how well Nintendo usually does with its handheld hardware design. It appears that Sony made the right decision in appealing to gamers – hardcore gamers at that – in designing its hardware.